Because This Family Clearly Wasn't Confusing Enough
by LunaLilyLucy
Summary: Life has it's ups and downs. The Swan/Cassidy/Mills/Charming/Stiltskin Family is complicated enough without adding even more members to it, but when Emma and Neal's daughter runs away from school one day, it becomes a little bit more complicated. Good luck drawing the family tree now. AU. Rated T because of language, themes, sexual references, etc.
1. I'm not

**Author's Note: I only take credit for the plot and my OC.**

It was a normal autumn day in Storybrooke, Maine, the sun was shining, and everyone except for the daughter of Emma Swan-Cassidy and Neal Cassidy was out at work. Erin Ruby Swan-Cassidy, although she'd kill anyone other than her parents who called her by her full name, she preferred being called Erin. The sixteen year old had come home at lunchtime from high school, she knew her parents wouldn't have approved, when they found out, but she didn't feel up to running around the track for an hour and a half. Erin was what you could call, the baby of the family, Henry was her older brother by thirteen years, and extremely over-protective, and being the granddaughter of Rumplestiltskin, Prince Charming and Snow White meant that there was hardly ever a moment of silence.

Erin had walked home from Storybrooke High School for about half an hour, if they noticed her absence, the office would've called her parents, she'd skipped school the other day after recess, because she felt sick, but she didn't want to worry anyone, because then it'd be even worse. It would've taken at least a half hour before someone at the office was notified of her absence, then five minutes to check whether Erin was in the bathroom or the nurse's office, and then her parents would've been called, her brother would've been told after that, along with the rest of the family, and then the search party would begin. This gave Erin five minutes at the least before Henry, her dad or her mum came home.

Erin had always been a daddy's girl; she was wrapped around Neal's little finger, and not to mention the rest of the family. Her long light brown hair looked acted exactly like her mother's and she had her father's warm brown eyes. The young woman had pale skin, but not quite as pale as her grandmother, and bore a heavy resemblance in facial structure to her mother. Her personality, however was a mix of different mix, she was kind and loyal to those that she liked, and who were nice to her, but she was shy to those she didn't know, and put a wall up. If a person made Erin mad, or hurt a person she loved, she would become angry, and start to hit something. She could use magic of both varieties if she wanted, but hardly ever did, knowing that all magic came at a price. Henry and Erin were twelve, almost thirteen years apart, but still very close, Henry would do anything for his baby sister, if that meant moving his family in with his parents then he would.

Erin opened the door with her keys, fumbling, before looking at the clock. Quickly she plonked her bag down in her bedroom, and walked into the bathroom. She needed to vomit, but she hadn't eaten anything. She spent the next five minutes or so vomiting her breakfast up. She looked at the clock again, and knew there wasn't that much time left before she was bombarded by questions, and likely to be grounded. Swiftly she flushed the toilet and brushed her teeth, now all that Erin wanted to do was to curl up in a ball and sleep for the next twelve hours. Quietly she opened the bathroom door, and walked quietly to her bedroom. As she climbed into her bed, and put her school things on the ground, her calendar caught her eye, and her eyes widened. She couldn't be three weeks late, could she? She thought, starting to panic.

Erin's stomach started to churn once more, and she literally sprinted to the bathroom, trying not to upchuck. She began to look through the cupboards, knowing there'd be a pregnancy test somewhere in the bathroom. After a couple of minutes searching through the cupboards, she found what she was looking for, and began to read the instructions. Erin sighed, and did as the instructions told her, before putting the cap on the pregnancy test and laying it on the bench. The two minutes of waiting were agony, time had slowed down from gushing like a waterfall to dripping slowly like a leaking tap, thoughts kept looming through her head: if she was pregnant how was she supposed to tell her family? What was she going to do with the baby? Was she even pregnant? What was going to happen to her and school? How was she supposed to deal with it?

Eventually time was up, and with her hands trembling, Erin picked up the test slowly, before sinking to her knees crying. She was pregnant, she didn't want to believe it, but everything pointed towards the idea. She couldn't stop staring at the test, up until she heard the front door open. Quickly moving the test into the middle of the trash, where no one could see it, or automatically think that it was hers. Erin quickly glanced down at her stomach, and wiped away the tears that she didn't realise she'd shed. Her hand reached for the handle and she turned it, walking out of the bathroom, and straight into her bedroom, meeting her mother when she came in.

Emma looked at her daughter with a look of sympathy, understanding, relief but anger, sadness and worry. "Where've you been Erin?"

"Mum…" Erin whined, looking paler than usual and weak. "I was at school." She mumbled.

Emma looked at her and raised her eyebrows. "Erin, you don't look well. You can tell me." She said softly, moving forward to stroke her hair gently. "We both know you weren't at school for P.E."

"Right, the thing with lying…" She mumbled, leaning into her mother gently. "I came home, I felt sick, but I didn't want anyone to have to come to get me."

"You should've told someone…we can go get Whale to look at you?" Emma suggested

Erin adamantly shook her head quickly. "I'm fine, I just need to go sleep." She said quietly.

"Are you sure?" Emma asked her daughter softly, kissing her forehead.

Erin nodded. "Just let me sleep for a bit Mum, please?" She begged.

"Alright, but you're grounded." Emma sighed, before going to call Neal and the rest of the family.

Erin nodded, and climbed into her bed, she didn't know how to deal with this, but she was so tired, and felt horrible. Sleep sounded wonderful, and shortly she fell asleep, not noticing when Neal kissed her forehead as she slept, or hearing her parents talk about her grounding. Erin slept through the night, without being woken up, or disturbed until the next morning, when all her thoughts came back to her. She wondered how long she could keep it from them without anyone noticing something was wrong.

**Author's Note: I wrote this today, so can I get your thoughts? I'm really happy with this so far and I'm going to keep going. I apologise if anyone's too OOC, but this is my first OUAT Fanfic.**


	2. Bloody Toaster

**A/N: I don't own anything you recognise, I hope you enjoy. I also really loved getting the four reviews so far.**

As the thoughts loomed around Erin's head, various voices could be heard from the lounge room. She could recognise everyone's voices, but she couldn't keep track of the day, or even bother to look at the time. There were at least three voices, and a toddler giggling happily. Reluctantly, Erin looked at the calendar, next to a photo of her and everyone in her family, (even Regina after some convincing from Henry, Robin and Roland) while Dr. Whale took the picture, just after she was born. It was Friday, which meant that she probably had to go to school, or someone was going to stay home with her, and watch that she didn't run somewhere else again, not that Erin was stupid enough to do that now that the whole town would be on the alert about where she should be at certain times unaccompanied.

The young woman looked at the clock, it was eight fifteen, generally she would be on her way to school by now, so clearly she wasn't being forced to go today, even if one of her parents or Henry were driving her, she would've had to start getting ready at around eight so that they could leave, and there would be enough time for an emergency call or to sit through traffic. Debating whether or not to get out of bed, took a minute for Erin, on one hand she could avoid talking to anyone, and the bed was warm, but on the other hand, someone may come in to talk to her, and she was hungry. Eventually the second hand won out, and Erin pulled herself out of the bed, along the floor of her bedroom, and into the kitchen slowly to grab some toast before climbing back into bed again.

Erin tried to make the least amount of noise as possible as she got the sourdough loaf, knife and cutting board. She cut two thick slices, and moved to get the toaster, accidently dropping it on her foot, and swearing as she picked it up, hoping that no one had heard her. After carefully placing the toaster on the counter, she plugged the appliance into the socket and after having had placed the pieces of bread into the slots pushed the lever down and turned around to face her brother. She bit her lip, and pointed at the toaster, blaming it for her outburst.

Henry shook his head, chuckling slightly. "The toaster ditched school?" He asked.

Erin rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I dropped it on my bloody toe, and now it bloody hurts." She whined.

"Why'd you ditch school?" He asked, looking at his baby sister.

"It's not as if you never ditched school. If I remember correctly you stole Gran's credit card, and hopped on a bus to Boston to find Mum, and dragged her back here when you were eleven." She pointed out, smirking, as she though she'd won the non existant argument.

"Erin, that was eighteen years ago, get over it. Everyone forgave me anyway, and it was that one day that week. You skipped on Tuesday as well."

"I didn't feel well, okay, that's it. I didn't particularly feel like running around a track for an hour and a half, when I wanted to vomit." She said bitterly, as the toast popped up.

"Erin, you know someone would've come to get you, even if that was Regina to bring you home." He sighed, leaning against the counter.

"Where's Grace? Shouldn't you two be making-out or something?" Erin asked, trying to change the subject as she buttered her toast.

"She's over at her dad's and don't change the subject." He said, moving closer to her.

Erin moved away and took a bite out of her toast. "I'm going to bed." She mumbled, starting to walk back to her bedroom.

Henry raised his eyebrows. "You do realise that you're not getting out of this, and Belle's coming here to watch you right?" He chuckled, waiting to see the look on his little sister's face.

"I'm not a baby! I'm fine! ALL I WANT TO DO IS SLEEP FOR THE NEXT TWELVE HOURS, CAN NO ONE UNDERSTAND THAT? I'M OLD ENOUGH TO BE LEFT ALONE FOR A DAY WHILE I FEEL CRAP, I'M NOT GOING TO RUN AWAY WHEN I'M WHERE I WANT TO BE? CAN EVERYONE JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?" Erin snapped, turning towards her brother, before walking back into her bedroom and slamming the door.

Henry stood there stunned, and looked behind him, his eyes wide open at his parents. "What's wrong with her? I don't think this is just the toaster dropping on her foot."

Emma rolled her eyes, playfully patting Henry's head. "You don't ever change do you?" She asked, laughing a little bit, and handing Gabriella back to Henry.

Henry and Grace had started dating, against Jefferson's wishes when Henry was eighteen, however he couldn't do anything about it, because Grace was happy. The couple got married when Erin was ten and Henry was almost twenty three. The couple had a son who was almost four named Daniel, and a one year old named Gabriella. Grace mainly stayed at home nowadays, but when she was going to go back to work at the modern fashions store, while Henry worked at the animal shelter.

Erin sat on her bed in her bedroom, almost immediately feeling bad about snapping at Henry, but she'd gotten the point that she'd wanted to communicate across to her family. Whether they listened to her was a completely different story. She climbed under the covers of her bed, and resumed eating her toast, trying to not look in the mirror across the room, yet she failed. Her hair was frizzy but she didn't have bad bed hair, she was pale, and clearly looked nauseous. Erin finished her toast and put the plate on her bedside table, laying down and closing her eyes. Erin tried to relax, knowing that stressing would only make her feel worse, but why did it have to be Belle babysitting her? Belle's intelligent, and would probably figure out what was wrong, then force her to go see Whale, or to tell her parents, otherwise she'd tell Rumple, and then there'd be even more trouble.

Erin started to plan her day out in her mind: Try not to be nauseous, try not to give away anything, sit on the couch and watch the television or read a book all day, sleep some more and possibly eating something else. Twenty minutes later Neal came into her bedroom, and shut the door behind him. "Princess, are you awake?" He asked softly, kissing her forehead gently.

Erin nodded, and opened her eyes slowly. "I'm up." She mumbled.

"Why'd you yell at Henry?" He asked, concern clear in his eyes.

"He was annoying me, and pestering me, and I snapped. Tell him I'm sorry?" She begged, using the puppy dog eyes, that usually worked on her father so well.

"Not this time, you can apologise to him later." He said, stroking her hair.

"Mum still here?" She asked, nodding.

Neal shook his head. "She's at the station, and Henry went with Gabriella back to Grace."

"Why're you here Dad?" She asked impatiently, wanting to go back to sleep again.

"I have to leave in a couple of minutes." He sighed, continuing to stroke his daughter's hair. "Belle's in the kitchen, and I just wanted to check on you."

Erin nodded. "I'm fine Daddy, I'm just sick." She lied, hoping her father would buy it.

Neal nodded, buying it with the word Daddy. "I'll come home as soon as I can." He promised standing up, and kissing Erin's forehead gently, before getting up and talking to Belle.

Erin sighed in relief after he shut the door, knowing that hiding from him was going to be harder than she had imagined previously. It wasn't as if she liked to lie to him, and she knew he hated lying, in fact her whole family did, but this time in her opinion it was necessary. She heard the front door close shortly after, and let her eyes close, her thoughts closing in around her as she tried to go back to sleep once more.


	3. Look, I'm fine

**A/N: I don't own anything you recognise, only my characters and the plot. I apologise for any errors or slip ups, I'm Australian, we say Mum instead of Mom, and other stuff like that. Thank you for all the follows, comments and favourites, and I'll update soon.**

Erin slept for another couple of hours, before the nagging churning in her stomach returned to her. She groaned, and rolled over to face the door, although her eyes were still closed. Inside, she debated whether to go out of her room, and talk to Belle, or to stay inside and continue to feel horrible. It was clear that there was no possible way that she could completely avoid talking to Belle all day, because at some point sooner or later she would come into her bedroom. Erin sighed, and moved to get out of bed, slowly taking a few steps towards the vanity table, and pulling a brush slowly through her walnut brown hair, forming light bouncy curls, after she'd curled it a few days ago. As she looked in the mirror, she noticed that she didn't look as bad as she had before, with her hair now looking what she classified as presentable.

Reluctantly Erin opened the door, and walked into the lounge room, sitting across from Belle, who was reading a book that she couldn't see the title of from where she sat. She thought that it was best to get the conversation over now, rather than later. Belle and Rumplestiltskin had gotten married after the whole ordeal with the Wicked Witch of the West had died down, a few months after Erin was born, she didn't remember it, but there were photos of her being there as a four month old, being held by most of her family. Awkwardly, Erin sat on the other couch opposite from the one that Belle was sitting on, curling up and laying her head against the armrest gently.

Belle looked up from her book at Erin, and smiled. "Hey, er, I was going to come and check on you once I finished this chapter." She said softly, placing her bookmark in the book delicately.

"Or the rest of the book." Erin laughed slightly, knowing how Belle was like with books.

Belle laughed slightly. "Maybe. You look better than Baelfire described." She observed.

Erin rolled her eyes slightly and nodded. "Don't let Dad hear that you called him Baelfire, although you're his step-mother so you can call him whatever you want, and he won't object." She laughed a little bit. "What book is it?"

"Jules Verne, The Mysterious Island. Although that's not the point Erin…" Belle sighed, putting her book down on the coffee table. "How're you feeling?"

"The same as yesterday really. I guess Mum told you." Erin shrugged.

Belle nodded, and looked at Erin. "Emma mentioned it yesterday." She said in agreement. "But I'm asking you now."

Erin sighed. "I'm just tired, and nauseous, and I feel like crap." She defined.

"Do you want me to get Rumple?" Belle asked, sitting next to her.

Erin shook her head quickly. "No, don't bother Grandpa, he's busy at the shop, and I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine, but it doesn't seem like a fever. You know he'd come here if you wanted."

"It's more like a stomach bug." Erin sighed, getting up and went to the bathroom.

Belle followed Erin, after the door closed, and stood there. "Do you need anything Erin?" She asked with concern.

Erin vomited, kneeling by the toilet. "No, I'm okay at the moment." She mumbled through the door, before flushing and standing up again. A couple of minutes later she opened the door again, clearly paler than she was before. "I'm going back to bed." She said, taking one look at Belle, before walking back to her bedroom and climbing under the covers.

Belle nodded, and watched the girl who was really her step-granddaughter, but she considered more like her niece. After watching her go back to bed, she got her mobile phone out of her bag and rang Emma. She'd figured it out, but wasn't going to talk to Erin about it, clearly the girl knew, or suspected otherwise her guard wouldn't be put up so much. Ringing Emma was simple, she picked up on the first ring, and said that she was coming back home, after doing a lunch run at Granny's. Belle hung up afterwards, and opened the door slightly to check on Erin, before continuing on reading her novel.

About twenty minutes later Emma came through the door holding a bag from Granny's containing three grilled cheeses and milkshakes. Dumping her keys on the table by the door, she put the bag down on the coffee table gently. "Belle? Is Erin asleep?" She asked.

Belle nodded, looking up from her book. "Yeah, she's asleep. She came out of her room for about five minutes before she had to throw up, and went back to sleep." She replied.

"No more lashing out at people?" Emma asked, unpacking the bag.

Belle once again shook her head. "She just seems a bit more guarded." She told her, standing up.

Emma nodded, and was reminded of how she used to have her guard up all the time. "I'll talk to her when she wakes up again. Grilled cheese?"

"No thanks. I'll go get a hamburger or something on the way back to the library." She said, packing up her bag.

"Okay…Thanks for staying, and watching her."

"It wasn't a problem." Belle replied, smiling at Emma before heading towards the door. "I, um, better go." She said before leaving.

Emma sighed, and watched Belle go, before grabbing a grilled cheese and a milkshake and starting to eat her lunch while watching television quietly, careful not to disturb Erin.

Erin woke up groggily a couple of hours later, hearing the television make a large bang. She groaned, and reluctantly pulled herself from the warm, comfortable bed, and walked back out into the living room. Her hair was a mess again, she gave a small nod at her mother, and resumed her previous position from when Belle was reading. She didn't want to say something, just leaving her alone with her thoughts, but her stomach had other ideas. As she smelt the grilled cheese, her first instinct was to grab some, being one of her favourite lunches other than hamburgers, fries and tacos, but after inhaling the aroma, her stomach churned, and the young woman got up, almost running to the bathroom, and shutting the door behind her, starting to vomit.

Emma looked at her daughter running to the bathroom, she hadn't expected it. She stood up with her half a milkshake in her hand. "Erin?" She asked softly, knocking at the door. "Let me in kid." She sighed, opening the door.

Erin looked up at the door. "I'm fine Mom." She replied weakly, knowing it wouldn't do much.

"No, you're not, let me in." Emma was firmer this time.

"Can I just not?" Erin asked quietly, hoping she wasn't heard.

Emma rolled her eyes, and found a bobby pin to unlock the door with. About a minute later she was in, and held Erin's hair back. "A simple thank you would be enough." She mumbled.

"Thanks." Erin mumbled. "I didn't need to open the door, you did it yourself." She muttered bitterly, prior to the rest of her stomach content being emptied.

"Erin…" Her mother sighed, rubbing her back slowly. "It would've been simpler if you'd left it unlocked, or unlocked it for me."

"Alright, you win. Now can I be left alone?" Erin asked weakly, sarcasm laced in her first sentence.

"No." Emma replied, stroking Erin's hair. "I'm taking you to the hospital."

"Mum, it's not like I ate an apple turnover, trying to prove a point." Erin rolled her eyes, flushed the toilet, sitting on the floor and wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

"That has nothing to do with this." Emma still felt a little bit guilty about that, and several other things. "Something's wrong."

Erin sighed. "It's a stomach bug or gastro." She shrugged, shaking her head. "I'll be fine in a few days Mum."

Emma rolled her eyes. "If you're not any better by tomorrow I'm taking you to the ER."

"Stupid stubbornness." Erin muttered, and nodded. "Fine, whatever."

"Come on." Emma said, holding out a hand to Erin to help her get up.

Erin looked at the hand sceptically, and stood up with the aid from her mother. "Thanks." She muttered, and walked back to the couch, and lay down.

Emma followed her and sat back on the couch. "You can go back to sleep if you want."

Erin nodded, and walked back to her bedroom, the aroma of cheese and milkshakes making her feel nauseous again. "Okay." She mumbled, keeping the door open.

Erin climbed under her striped, vibrantly coloured bed sheets, thoughts looming around her head, too many to allow her to go straight back to sleep. Her mind wandered over various topics involving her pregnancy; she wandered how she was supposed to tell her mother, maybe she'd be supportive and understand considering that she'd been in a similar position. How was she supposed to tell everyone? How was she supposed to raise a baby? How was she going to tell him- her heart skipped a beat, Erin couldn't believe she was so stupid that she'd forgotten all about the baby's father.

Erin's brain started to go into overdrive. William Herman and her had slept together a few times, they got on, and were friends mostly. Secretly, she liked him, and she knew he liked her, but the family tree had already been complicated enough before the new development. William was the younger brother of Alexandra, older brother of Seraphina, and son of Ashley and Sean Herman, also known as Cinderella and Prince Thomas. Will was loyal, kind, handsome, funny but could also be insecure and had issues with defending himself.

As she lay in her bed, she dreaded the idea of going to the ER tomorrow, or going to see Doctor Whale, and having to tell Will about the baby before he heard it from someone else, or her family found out. She considered sneaking out of the house and hot-wiring the yellow bug to go and talk to him, however there was no way while her mother was in the living room, and she felt too sick to even try. In that moment Erin decided to hide for as long as she possibly could, even if it only ended up being another few hours.


	4. I love you-like a friend

**A/N: Thank you so much for reading this far, and I apologise for not updating sooner, but I've been working on this chapter since the last one a couple of weeks ago and school's started back up again, and I have to work on my Personal Project at the same time. Anyway I would love to thank everyone who's reviewed, favourited and/ or followed this story or me, I take all the reviews into account. I don't own anything you recognise and I've let my imagination wild, so I have a bit of creative licence to this. I'll try to update again before next Monday here, but I can't promise anything. **

* * *

About a week after having had stayed at home, and having vowed to herself to hide the pregnancy as long as she can, Erin had somehow managed to convince her parents that she was fine, and that it was just a stomach virus. However the sixteen year old knew it wouldn't be long until someone other than Belle figured it out. Belle and Erin had had a long discussion about it after school the following Tuesday, in the library because Erin needed to get a couple of books for school. They talked for about half an hour, before Jade came looking for her mother and Erin decided that she had to go back home at some point.

Before Erin was born, several things had happened; The Wicked Witch of the West had been beaten by Regina. Snow and David had another daughter, named Nicole, who was a few months older than Erin, while Belle found out that she was pregnant with Jade, during the debacle involving the Wicked Witch. Ariel and Eric finally got married, and in one of the final battles Killian had been injured, later succumbing to his injuries, and dying a week later in hospital.

If a person thought that the family tree had been complicated before Erin's birth, it was absolutely nothing compared to how it looked now. It didn't even resemble a tree, more like a really large leaved bush. Erin and Jade got along well, often hanging out at with each other when there was a family gathering, seeing as Jade had graduated two years early. Nicole and Erin were close as children, almost as if they were best friends, and it had continued mainly throughout the years, and they were still that way. When she had been given the family tree assignment, she tried to fill it out, and ended up filling up five pages on who she knew about.

* * *

Moving quietly, and quickly, Erin got dressed, putting her glasses on, because she couldn't be bothered to put her contacts in, and she was trying to sneak out anyway, so going to the bathroom in the midst of that, would arouse suspicion. Passing the mirror, she glanced at her appearance, smiling a little bit when she saw her stomach was still flat, and looked over her appearance, she looked good enough for what she was planning on doing. Erin put her boots on, ran a brush through her hair gently and slowly grabbed her handbag, before tiptoeing over to the front door, and carefully sneaking out of the house. She ran outside, from the rain spitting on top of her hair gently, unlocking the yellow bug door, and sliding into the car. As she slid the key into the ignition she relaxed slightly, and turned it, a small smile gracing her features as it roared, and she began to back out of the driveway, and to Granny's.

Turning off the engine, Erin sighed, and sat in the bug for a few minutes before walking up the stairs and into the diner. As she walked slowly into the diner, across the black and white tiles, she avoided faces of the people she knew and sat in a back booth. The sixteen year old hid her face from prying eyes with a curtain of hair, nervously glancing up at the clock every few seconds to see if more time had passed. To Erin it felt as if time had been slowed down so much so that a second felt like an hour. Erin was waiting, originally William had suggested that they meet at his house after Erin said that they'd needed to talk, but she couldn't do it there knowing someone would hear them. Granny's was the next obvious place as to where not to go, however the two were meeting on the old toll bridge, because it was secluded, no one would ever think that was the first place to look for them and he couldn't physically run from her there.

After what felt like hours, Erin got up and walked back out to the bug, and began to drive to the toll bridge, extra carefully, not wanting to break the car, and the roads were slippery. After having had parked the car, Erin climbed out, and waited at the side of the road for William. Five minutes later he came and greeted her gently.

"Erin." He smiled, clearly unable to read the subtext in her text stating that they needed to talk.

"Hey Will." She replied quietly, shying away as he moved closer.

"What's wrong?" He asked, noticing her moving away.

Erin looked at him, before shaking her head. "I need you to listen to me, please? Can you just promise me you won't run away from me until we've finished, even if you never want to see my face ever again?"

He looked past confused, bemused, but nodded reluctantly. "What's going on? Are you okay?"

"Um, yes and no, except not yes, so to sum it up no." She replied, beginning to pace, and twiddle her thumbs.

Will gently grabbed her shoulders. "Tell me what's going on." He said firmly, with his gentle ocean blue eyes filled with concern.

Erin looked up at him, milk chocolate brown meeting ocean blue. "I-we, not if you don't want to, I mean I can do it on my own. I love you."

"Erin, you're not speaking in coherent sentences, what are we doing?" He asked her gently, as he gently stroked her cheek with one hand. "I love you too."

"I'm-" She stopped herself, and looked at him, and ran a hand gently through his sandy blonde hair. "I'm pregnant, with our baby…" She whispered.

* * *

Will stood there, looking at her, his mouth was moving, however no sound came out. It was as if his tongue had been taken from his mouth, except there was no pain from trying to speak. "Are you sure..?" He asked after a couple minutes of mute lip movement.

Erin rolled her eyes and nodded. "I wouldn't joke about this." She said quietly.

"They're going to kill me." He sighed, referring to her family.

"Really, no how are you? How're you feeling? Is this why you ditched school last week? Instead saying my family's going to kill you. They'd probably just try to turn you into a snail and step on you." She laughed hollowly.

"It's just a lot to take in…" He replied, looking at her.

"You think? You're not the one who's having a baby in seven months."

"So we're keeping it then?"

She raised her eyebrows. "It's a baby, not an inanimate object Will. I'm not discarding our baby, or giving them up for adoption."

"Sorry, that was insensitive." He murmured.

"Just a little bit…" She said icily.

William looked for something intelligent to say to his girlfriend, eventually settling on. "How long?"

"I don't know…It's been about a week since I found out, so almost two months…" She said quietly, before drawing in a large breath and speaking a little bit louder. "Look, I understand if you want absolutely nothing to do with me or the baby, actually I don't, but I'll pretend to and I won't come and tell you anything if you don't want me to, but I just had to tell you, because otherwise it would've made it really awkward when I had the baby and still hadn't told you-" Erin said rapidly, before Will cut her off.

"I got it." He murmured, chuckling slightly. "How many times do I have to tell you that the only thing that'd stop me seeing you would be going back to the Enchanted Forest?"

"More." She joked.

"I'm not leaving you."

"Good." Erin replied, looking at him, the past few minutes running through her mind. "Did you just say that you love me?" She asked him.

William raised his eyebrows. "You said it first, and I love you- like a best friend." He tried to cover it up.

Erin nodded. "Right, me too. Because it'd just be weirder if we started dating, or if we liked each other the other way." She mumbled, silently disappointed. "It's simpler if we just have a baby together and stay friends." She nodded.

"Right…" He nodded slowly, looking at her. "Um, I should go back home, before Dad questions me." He stated awkwardly, looking away from Erin.

"Yeah, I should go home before they notice and start the search party." She nodded, and started to walk back to the car. "Bye." She mumbled.

* * *

On the drive home, Erin replayed the whole meeting through her head. It had been so awkward, and she'd snapped at him, when she hadn't meant to. She admitted it, she loved him, but being the stubborn teenager she was, she wasn't going to admit it to him, up until he did first. Traffic was slightly congested on the main road, as people began travelling to work to open shops up for business. After about ten minutes the yellow bug slowly pulled into the driveway in front of the house, there were no other cars there, which either meant that the whole family was looking for her or had absolutely no idea that she was gone, the garage door was still locked (electric system in place). The key in the ignition was rotated, and the engine stopped rumbling, Erin quietly climbed out of the car, and shut the door, trying to make as little noise as physically possible before walking in through the front door, after having had unlocked the door.

Swinging the door in front of her, Erin clambered inside the door, and began to lock it back up, as if she'd never left in the first place. Erin slowly tiptoed to the living room, and immediately came to a halt seeing both of her parents looking at her silently, as if trying to deduct her story from her appearance. "Shit." She mumbled, looking at the two of them.


	5. How do I get out of this one?

The atmosphere was so tense and stressed that one could physically feel the awkward in the air. Emma was still wearing her sweatpants and one of Neal's shirts, that she'd stolen from the dresser, just by looking at her appearance, you could tell that she hadn't gotten up too long ago. Whilst, from Neal's appearance, his dark brown hair all messed up, and his singlet was on back to front; his face was arranged so that there was a concerned, yet curious look coming from his features. No one spoke for moments, all the communication was done through observation, glances and body language, if an outsider had been there, they would've backed out of the room slowly, not wanting to be there when an argument would implode.

* * *

Erin looked down, and sighed. "I-I can explain…" She said quietly. "I-er, went to go get the mail, but there wasn't any." It was the best lie that the sixteen year old girl could come up with on short notice.

Emma raised her eyebrows, and looked at her daughter. "It's eight thirty in the morning, and you've been gone for at least two hours on a Sunday morning Erin." She pointed out.

"Shit." The young girl murmured, it wasn't going her way at all. "I just threw this on to get the mail…"

Neal looked at his baby girl with concern. "Princess, we know you didn't go to get the mail, so stop with that lie." He stated, glancing at Emma before looking back at Erin. "We're concerned."

Emma nodded at Neal and leaned forward from the back of the couch. "Talk to us Erin." She said, in the tone that she generally used to worm information out of someone.

"Mom, Dad, I'm fine, cut it out!" Erin complained.

"Even Belle has noticed that you're different. We're not your enemies Erin, we just want to help." Neal stated calmly.

"Then leave me and my business alone!" Erin begged.

Emma looked at her daughter and shook her head.

"You see! It's things like this why Henry stayed over at Regina's sometimes!" She yelled angrily and tried to stand up, before sitting back down. "Can I go back to sleep?"

Neal looked at Emma before shaking his head. "Not until you tell us what's going on."

* * *

The phone rang, interrupting the conversation, and Neal practically jumped up and grabbed the phone, wanting to get out of the conversation as soon as humanly or magically possible. He grabbed the phone and smiled a little. "Yeah, give me a second Henry." He stated, before pointing to the kitchen and continuing the conversation there.

Emma looked at her daughter, and ran a hand through her hair, before deciding to speak again, seeing that Neal was trying to get out of the conversation. "Erin, I'm not as stupid as I look."

"Says the person who mistook their grandfather-in-law for their own son." She smirked.

"Neal still doesn't know about that, and I'd prefer if it stayed that way, and that was on Neverland, where I had absolutely no idea what was where, and I was out of my depth, from a distance it looked like they were the same height and I only saw his back."

"The point still stands Mom, you mistook Peter Pan for Henry." Erin rolled her eyes, and looked at her mother, smirking slightly.

"This isn't about that Erin." Emma replied seriously. "Who do you think empties the garbage?"

"Dad?" Erin guessed, trying to stay impassive, even though she wanted to widen her eyes wider.

"Yes, but I did it this week." Emma sighed, and continued to look at her daughter, before pulling the empty pregnancy test packet out of her pocket. "Care to explain why this is empty?"

"Because someone thought they were pregnant, and took the test, and left the box in the bin?" She said as if it were the most obvious thing in all of the worlds.

"And who would have used it?" Emma pressed on, raising her eyebrows. She knew Erin was going to tell her at some point, even if it took a couple more weeks. Emma was determined to get her daughter to explain now.

"I don't know, it could've been anyone. Maybe you took it and forgot." The younger woman shrugged, continuing to try to get out of the situation completely.

Emma shook her head. "Erin…" She sighed.

Erin avoided her mother's gaze, and kept her eyes firmly on the ground. "Then maybe it was Belle's, or Grace's."

"Erin… My superpowe-"

"No Mom, don't mention your 'superpower' again, it's not!" Erin sighed, chewing on her lips. "Why were you even looking in the cupboard and picking up the pregnancy test anyway?"

"I said the box was in the bin." Emma smiled a little, her plan was working, Erin was crumbling, and spun in a web of her own lies.

"What did I say?" Erin tried to backtrack. "I meant bin… It would've had to have been in the cupboard at some point though." She kept stumbling over her own voice.

Her mother continued to look at the young girl and shook her head. "You said cupboard. How did you know it wasn't in the bin Erin?" She asked again. "You know I hate it when you lie, and I always know."

"What do you want me to say Mum?" Erin asked, exasperatedly. "I looked the other night, and saw that the box was in there, alright?"

"I want you to tell me what is really going on." Emma told Erin gently, stroking her dark caramel coloured hair. "The truth."

Erin sighed, and leaned back into the couch. "Guess, because I'm not saying." She challenged

* * *

As Emma was just about to open her mouth to speak, Neal came back into the room, looking frazzled. "Um, Em can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Right now?" Emma asked, turning around to face Neal.

Erin nodded eagerly and stood up, swinging her handbag over her shoulder and walking back to her bedroom, shutting the door.

Emma looked at her husband and sighed. "Yes?" She asked. "We were kind of in the middle of something Mr. Son of Rumplestiltskin."

"Henry's house got broken into." He told her.

"Great, any idea who it was? Wait why are you telling me this?" Emma asked.

"You're the sheriff Em." He pointed out. "Probably Spencer."

* * *

**A/N: Thank you for reading, can you believe it's less than two weeks until the next ep? The light at the end of the hiatus is visible. I don't own anything you recognise, and I apologise if anyone seems too OOC, I just needed to point it out. I'll write another chapter tomorrow, life's been hectic, so I haven't had time to write. Let me know what you think guys!**


	6. Suspicions

**A/N: Don't own anything you recognise, please read disclaimers in previous chapters. **

* * *

There was a loud thud as Erin closed the door and walked back into her bedroom, throwing herself and her bag onto the bed. "Shit, shit, shit." She mumbled under her breath, she hadn't expected this to happen. Erin considered herself lucky that a family emergency had broken up that conversation. She could see that this merely delayed the rest of the conversation, allowing her an opportunity to think of an excuse. It wasn't going to be much use to lie to her mother, as proved before, and she would have to face the rest of the family at some point. It was highly likely that Emma and Neal weren't going to leave her alone, especially right now. Her stomach was doing flips, but she chose to ignore it, whether it was due to the young woman's nerves or her pregnancy, or a combination of the two, Erin had no idea. She could hear her parents talking out in the living room, and trying to block out the sound, she covered her face with a pillow.

After what felt like half an hour, which was actually less than five minutes, the chatter had died down and there was a knock on the bedroom door. "Erin, where's the bug?" Neal asked.

"It's in the driveway Daddy." Erin replied in a baby voice, trying to get him to leave her alone with her thoughts.

Neal chuckled and opened the door. "Come on." He sighed, sitting next to her. "We need to go to Henry's."

Erin raised her eyebrows. "Why do I need to go?"

"Mum and I say so." He replied, kissing her forehead. "Get out from under the pillow."

Erin moved her head out from the underside of her pillow. "Can I stay at Granny's instead?"

"You love going to Henry's, and everyone else is there." He told her gently. "So the answer is no."

"But Dad-" "Emma said." He sighed, standing up. "Your like three hundred and fifty years old Dad, and Mum's like, forty five. Doesn't age count?" She smirked.

Neal shook his head. "Nice try kid."

"Careful, you're starting to sound like Mom." She smirked slightly, smiling properly for the first time in ages.

Neal playfully punched Erin's shoulder. "There are worse people to sound like." He rolled his eyes playfully. "We're leaving in a minute."

Erin could feel her eyes rolling in the back of her head. "Fine." She sighed, standing up slowly, and hanging her head in pretend shame, before slowly shuffling her way to the front door, scuffing her shoes as she went.

* * *

Eventually Emma came to the front door, wearing her red leather jacket, and doing something on her phone, what it was unknown, however it was unlikely to be a game, by the rhythm of her tapping fingers. Soon enough the three were in the yellow bug, that symbolised so much. It was the place where her parents had met, and begun their lives together. It was one of the only things her mother had kept during their separation before Henry had come to Boston to find Emma, before she knew about the curse and broke it. When Henry was eighteen and Erin was about five, he had stolen the keys and took Grace out to the line to watch the stars. What was truly amusing was both Jefferson's reaction and the reactions of the rest of the family. It took the town three hours to find the young couple staring up into the starry sky. The drive was awkward as Erin sat in the back of the yellow car, anxiously waiting for someone to try to interrogate her or to trick her into continuing the conversation from earlier that morning, but it never came.

After the immensely quiet car trip, which felt longer than it probably was in reality due to the severe awkwardness between the members of the family, Neal drove into Henry's street, where there were a few cars already there. Erin quickly got out of the car, slamming the door and running into her older brother's house, so that her mother didn't pull her aside. Erin arranged her face into a flustered look, and messed her hair up a little before hugging Henry. "Sorry about the other day…" She mumbled before going to play with Gabriella on the floor. Erin completely ignored the looks she got from the rest of the family as she sat on the floor, and talked through one of Gabriella's teddy bears, trying to entertain her. Gabriella giggled quietly, and tried to grab the teddy bear out of Erin's hands, yet failed, instead grabbing her aunt's light chocolate brown coloured hair. Erin laughed, and picked her niece up gently. "Hi. You're adorable Gabby, you know that?" She asked rhetorically, knowing Gabriella couldn't respond to her properly. "Auntie Erin loves you very much." She whispered, kissing her forehead.

* * *

Meanwhile the adults where discussing what had gone on, and what had been taken. "Mom, it was just some toys, a mirror and then they stole the book." Henry clarified, kissing Daniel's forehead.

"The book? As in the book? Your book?" Regina asked, leaning against Robin.

Henry nodded in clarification. "That'd be the book. With everyone's stories in it." He nodded, as Grace gently squeezed his hand.

"There's a book?" Nicole asked. "Actually there's Erin, bye." She said quickly, moving to join Erin on the floor.

"Yeah, I'm going to join them…" Jade said awkwardly, going to join the other family members about her age.

Emma sighed. "Do you two have any idea who would've taken it?"

David interrupted before Henry could even open his mouth to answer. "Spencer. King George."

"I should've killed him when I had the chance…" Rumple muttered.

"Rumple." Belle scorned lightly, nudging his elbow. "Not now."

"But Belle-" Rumple started

"No buts." Belle replied, before pointing her focus back to the group. Neal stopped himself from laughing at his father and his step-mother's antics.

"Why are you so sure it's him?" He asked.

David looked back at Neal. "Because he's done stuff like this before. He destroyed Jefferson's hat and killed a man in cold blood so that Ruby would get the blame." He pointed out.

"I'll look into it." Emma said, before anyone had the chance to say anything first. "Anyone else?"

"Look at my father." Belle muttered, noticing her husband's grip on his cane and her tighten.

"What? Why?" Snow asked, before looking at David, who quickly shook his head. "Never mind."

* * *

As the adults continued to discuss the issue, Erin continued to play with Gabriella on the floor, Jade and Nicole sat next to them and laughed. "Why are you so happy?" Jade asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah." Nicole asked in agreement, a smile gracing her gentle face.

Erin shook her head, and made silly faces at her niece. "Just am, I guess." She shrugged.

"Does this have anything at all with Mr. Will Boyd?" Nicole asked, smirking.

"No, not really." Erin replied, rolling her eyes.

"It so does!" Jade giggled and nudged her half-niece. "What did he do?" Nicole asked, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

Erin rolled her eyes again. "Nothing. Why do you think that me being happy has anything to do with what my boyfriend may or may not have done?"

"So he did do something then." Jade grinned.

"You two had sex this morning didn't you? That's why your hair is all messy and you were out." Nicole insinuated.

"No, we were not having sex this morning. My parents don't even know that I have a boyfriend." Erin replied, still playing with Gabriella.

"But you were with him." Jade pressed, laughing about how much she could get out of her.

"There was no doubt that she was with him." Nicole agreed. "Where were you, and what were you doing if you weren't doing you-know-what?"

"We were talking Nicole…" Erin sighed. "About?" Jade pressed, raising her eyebrows. "Stuff, you idiots." Erin replied, hugging Gabriella close.

"What, it's not as if you're pregnant or anything." Nicole stated, joking.

Jade's eyes widened as she realised. "You're dead, and he's dead. You know that right?"

Erin bit her lip. "It's not that obvious is it?" She asked. "Yeah, I know I'm going to die, and he's going to be killed by Dad, Grandpa, Grandad, Dr. Whale, Henry and his own parents, not to mention Mom and everyone else."

Nicole continued to look at Erin, confused for a moment, before her eyes widened in realisation. "You're having a baby?" She asked in confirmation, looking disapproving.

Erin nodded and rolled her eyes. "You look almost like Grandma when you do that…" She mumbled, turning her attention back to Gabriella.

Nicole was about to yell it out, before Jade covered her mouth and sat on top of Nicole. "Mum knows doesn't she?" She asked, with a hint of her mother's accent coming through.

Erin just nodded, and watched as her niece went to sleep on her shoulder. "Yeah, she found out a week or so ago." She replied, avoiding eye contact as much as possible.

"You should've told me first…" Jade mumbled, nodding. "Papa's going to go nuts." She commented, smiling slightly at Erin and Gabriella. "You're good with her."

* * *

It then went immensely quiet, as Jade continued to sit on Nicole to make sure that she didn't say anything. Gabriella was asleep on Erin's shoulder, still holding onto one of her aunt's curls. Emma, Neal, Rumplestiltskin, Henry, David, Regina, Robin and Snow had all left to go and find King George, and to the station leaving everyone at the house. After several hours, all the possessions had been returned safely, and King George had been placed in the asylum under the hospital, which was somewhere everyone was sure he couldn't harm anyone else, without killing him and keeping him solitary. When it had been dealt with, everyone left in dribs and drabs. Emma, Neal and Erin were the last to leave, and a family dinner had been organised the next week. The sixteen year old had been hesitant to give the infant back to her mother, but did so reluctantly, keeping her asleep, prior to leaving, and resuming the awkward silence of the car trip.

* * *

**A/N: What did you think of the Season 3B start? I loved it. I planned to get this up before that happened, but life got in the way. I'm sorry. Thank you for all your support though. Thank you for reading too! It's 11:21pm at night so, I should sleep because I have to get up in the morning. Tell me what you think, any suggestions are greatly appreciated, as are questions and queries.**


	7. Confrontations

**A/N: I don't own anything you recognise and check previous chapters for the disclaimer.**

* * *

When they got home, there was a sense that the discussion would be continued there and then, so instead of going straight to her bed, where Erin wanted to go, she sat straight on the couch, and began to play with her hair, wanting to get out of this as soon as physically possible. Her warm chocolate locks were immaculately braided into a loose side French braid before her mother sat next to her. "So, Henry has his stuff back again…" Erin said awkwardly, needing to get the conversation rolling.

"Yeah, he does." Emma nodded, looking at her daughter, as if she was trying to read her emotions and thoughts.

"And Spencer's locked away?" Erin continued to ask, noticing Neal purposely walk out of the room.

Emma nodded once again, rolling her eyes as she saw Neal leave. "Yes, he's locked away Erin." She promised, racking her brain over the previous conversation that morning, and picking up the box from the table. "How did you know it wasn't in the bin?"

"I told you, I looked the other day, and it was there. How was I supposed to know it was empty?" Erin lied.

"Erin…Sup-" Emma started, before Erin cut her off completely.

"Mom! It's not a fucking superpower. You read people, I'm not lying and I didn't know. Stop insinuating something has to be wrong with me, or that I know something which I clearly don't." Erin ranted, fighting the urge to run off and hide in her bedroom for the rest of her life, if it was humanly possible.

"Erin, I wasn't insinuating anything…" Emma sighed, and tried to stroke Erin's hair, she wanted answers.

"Yes you were." Erin interrupted, turning her face away from her mother, generally she wouldn't have dared to act like this, but today was different. "Why were you poking around in the cupboard in the first place?" She challenged, hoping to veer off course.

"I'm not telling. What else is kept in there?" Emma asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Ew. No. Lalalalala. I don't want to hear about your sex life with Dad." She yelled.

Emma laughed softly. "I just want you to talk to me."

"Then don't tell me about your sex life!" Her daughter replied, gulping. "Like I said before, guess."

"No, I want you to tell me." Emma sighed, she had a pretty good idea, but she wanted her daughter to actually tell her. She realised that if she kept pressing her, she would get what she wanted eventually.

"What do you want to hear Mom? That school's really hard? That I'm dealing with everything the best that I can?" Erin snapped, still firmly trying to hold onto the little ground that she had left.

Emma sighed, and her voice softened slightly. "What were you, Nicole and Jade talking about at Henry's?" She asked quietly. "I'm concerned about you…"

"What does it matter Mom? I'm fine." Erin shrugged and sighed.

"Jade was sitting on Nicole…" Emma stated, raising her eyebrows gently.

"Yeah, that's a usual occurrence. You're not there at school Mom." Erin shrugged, trying to keep her excuses going.

"Maybe I am, how would you know?" Erin raised her eyebrows at her mother's statement.

"Because I just do, and you would know a lot more than you actually do." Erin cheeked, laying back into the couch.

* * *

Emma could see that the conversation wasn't going where she wanted it to, in an ideal world, Erin would've already told her after she'd asked. Well if we're discussing an ideal world, then the discussion would've never taken place, and no one would've broken into Henry's house. Not to mention the fact that Erin wouldn't be in a similar position as her mother had been in twenty six years previously. However, considering how life had been then, and compared to now, everything was considerably calmer, and less complicated, (except for the family tree, which had only grown in those past twenty six years.)

* * *

There was a slight awkward silence between the two women. Nothing moved, it was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop on carpet, wrapped in padding for a softer landing. A sudden crash was heard, followed by a distant yell of "I got it!" From Neal in the kitchen.

Erin held her laughter by pursing her lips. "I'm not saying." She shrugged.

Emma raised her eyebrows, still facing the doorway into the kitchen. She was trying to find another approach to make her daughter crack and tell her the truth. "Fine… I'll just tell Henry that it was nothing." She shrugged vaguely. It's not as if she liked to lie, but she felt it was necessary in this instance.

Erin's eyes widened slightly. "Don't tell Henry anything." She said, before even thinking about what her mother had even said to her.

"Ha it is something then, because you tell him everything." Emma tried not to smile triumphantly.

"Mom…" Erin complained, burying her face in a pillow as she groaned.

Emma didn't say anything for a moment, stroking her daughters hair as the silence was heard. "Tell me, and I can fix it."

"It's not just something you fix Mom." Erin stated, moving the pillow away from her face. "Can I grab something to eat?" She asked, trying to change the subject.

"Not until we're done here." Emma said.

Erin groaned once more, and looked at her mother. "What do you want me to say? I'm failing school? I'm stressed all the time? I have a boyfriend? I have relationship issues? I'm a pregnant sixteen year old? Life is hard? I'm not a character in a story, unlike every one of my relatives! I'm not in the book, neither is Henry." She snapped, without bothering to think her answer through before it left her lips.

* * *

Emma looked at her daughter scandalized. Her mouth was moving, yet no sound emerged from her vocal cords. After a fair few moments, all that came out were incoherent sounds or pieces of words that made no sense to anyone. "Fa? Essed? Tion? Frie? Pre?" She managed to choke out.

Erin looked desperately for an excuse or something to tell her how to get out of this, as she looked at her mother with wide eyes. "No. No, I asked you what you wanted to hear, and I gave you examples." She weakly lied. She hated to admit that all of what she had said was true.

Emma continued to look at her daughter flabbergasted. "You can't lie." She mumbled. "Erin…"

"Look I'm fine, I'll leave. I know, it doesn't reach your expectations, I'll go to Granny's and wait there and then I'll go to Boston or New York." Erin said quietly, standing up. Her french braid was all messed up now and the colour had disappeared from her face completely.

"Erin…wait." Emma said quietly, but the effect of her words stopped her daughter in her tracks.

Erin swayed on her feet. "Why?" She asked weakly. She honestly looked as if she were about to collapse.

Emma moved her back to the couch gently. "We're not done talking about this."

* * *

**A/N: Sorry this took so long, but how about that episode? Wow! I called Zelena being Regina's sister, but hey. Your reviews mean everything to me and I thank you for all of your support. Let me know what you think, good or bad in the reviews or favourites or follows or even a PM if you prefer.**


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